Naked Lunch (1991)

After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.

Director:

David Cronenberg

Writers:

William S. Burroughs (novel), David Cronenberg

Stars:

Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm

16 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Weller	...	Bill Lee
Judy Davis	...	Joan Frost / Joan Lee
Ian Holm	...	Tom Frost
Julian Sands	...	Yves Cloquet
Roy Scheider	...	Dr. Benway
Monique Mercure	...	Fadela
Nicholas Campbell	...	Hank
Michael Zelniker	...	Martin
Robert A. Silverman	...	Hans
Joseph Scoren	...	Kiki (as Joseph Scorsiani)
Peter Boretski	...	Creature Voices / Exterminator #2
Yuval Daniel	...	Hafid
John Friesen	...	Hauser
Sean McCann	...	O'Brien
Howard Jerome	...	A.J. Cohen

Storyline

Not an adaptation of beat writer William S. Burrough's novel but a mix of biography and an interpretation of his drug- induced writing processes combined with elements of his work in this paranoid fantasy about Bill Lee, a writer who accidentally shoots his wife, whose typewriter transforms into a cockroach and who becomes involved in a mysterious plot in North African port called Interzone. Wonderfully bizarre, not unlike Burrough's books.

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Plot Keywords:

bug | writer | writing | exterminator | typewriter | 

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Taglines:

David Cronenberg and William S. Burroughs invite you to lunch.

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for heavy drug content, bizarre eroticism, and language

Details

Country:

Canada UK Japan

Language:

English Arabic

Release Date:

24 April 1992 (UK)

Also Known As:

El almuerzo desnudo

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$16,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$2,541,541 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Film Trustees Ltd., Naked Lunch Productions, Nippon Film Development and Finance

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The shooting of the author's wife is not a fictional incident. William S. Burroughs did indeed accidentally shoot his wife Joan in the head in 1951 in Mexico in a "William Tell" stunt that went disastrously wrong. Mexican law at the time meant that Burroughs only served 13 days in prison for killing his wife.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Bill Lee: Exterminator.

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Connections

Referenced in Antz (1998)

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Soundtracks

"Bugpowder"
Composed by Ornette Coleman
Performed by The Ornette Coleman Trio

User Reviews

Introduction to the New Flesh

Movies in the last years have become more uniform, more streamlined, particularly in the US. As a result, the film market is full of sleek, entertaining movies that the whole world goes to see, but these movies have nothing but harmless baby teeth. Fortunately, people like Lynch or Cronenberg still do movies that may be considered defective by most people, but that bite into the flesh with pointy canines. The Naked Lunch has very sharp teeth indeed. It's supposed to be an adaptation from a William Burrough's book, which doesn't make sense anyway. It starts as the story of a failed writer whose wife becomes addicted to an insecticide powder... It goes downhill after this relatively sane and normal beginning. It's a ride, a drug-induced nightmare full of horribly funny visions (the sort of visions that artists used centuries ago to represent hell). Anuses talk. Aliens sip alcohol in bars. People get impaled. Typewriters turn into bugs. Liquids ooze. You may say it's flawed, or disgusting, or ridiculous, or boring. I saw it with someone who absolutely hated it. But the fact that this person still keeps talking about it 8 years after seeing it says a lot about the Naked Lunch, at a time when we tend to forget blockbusters a few hours after watching them. The Naked Lunch is here - in your mind - to stay.